Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Ríordáin. I acknowledge his personal engagement with me, and the engagement from throughout the House, on the incident on Parnell Square.

Ensuring every child's experience in school is positive and that they have qualified, engaged teachers available to support them is a priority. Budget 2024 contains a range of measures that demonstrate commitment to continued investment in the education system. A professional masters of education incentive scheme, which I referenced earlier, is being introduced as a consequence of budget 2024. Newly qualified teachers who graduate with a PME will, subject to conditions, be eligible for an incentive payment of up to €2,000. This incentive payment will be paid to eligible primary and post-primary teachers in 2025.

Additionally, there will be an expansion in the number of upskilling programmes available. These programmes, which are free to teachers, increase the number of teachers who are qualified to teach in-demand subjects. These new upskilling programmes in Irish, French, politics and society, and computer science will be in addition to existing upskilling programmes in maths, physics and Spanish. An additional 1,000 posts of responsibility are being provided in the school system. This is in recognition that school leaders play a key role in improving educational outcomes by creating a positive school climate and environment as well as motivating and empowering educators and learners within their school communities.

These new measures are in addition to a range of targeted measures introduced in recent times, including, as I mentioned earlier, approving 610 additional places on initial teacher education primary level programmes for 2023-24 and ensuring initial teacher education providers created existing flexibilities that enable student teachers to support schools, either while on placement, or in a substitute capacity. It is worthy of note that in 2023, more than 2,700 student teachers registered with the Teaching Council and provided valuable support to schools as substitute teachers.

We will continue the operation of primary substitute teacher supply panels in 2023-24, with 590 teaching posts allocated to 166 panels covering nearly 3,000 schools. We are encouraging retired teachers to provide substitute cover. A communications campaign was run and it is interesting to note that the number of days covered by retired teachers during this past year increased by 49%. Restrictions on job-sharing teachers and those on a career break from working as substitutes have been lifted.

See this speech in context